New University of Leicester study identifies links between musical tastes and lifestyle

The music we listen to can tell a lot more than you might think about what kind of people we are, according to research findings by a University of Leicester psychologist.

Now, Dr Adrian North is extending his research worldwide. He is looking for 10,000 people from all over the world to take part in an online survey at www.musicaltastetest.com, stating their preference from over 50 musical styles and completing a questionnaire.

The survey, funded by the British Academy, will help Dr North and his team determine to what extent people's musical tastes can be predicted on the basis of basic demographic information, such as age, sex and earnings.

Dr North said, "Although we know a lot about musical preference, musicaltastetest.com is the largest ever academic survey of who likes what. Nothing on this scale has ever been attempted before."

Related research by Dr North about to be published in the journal Psychology of Music shows that a person's musical preference tells a great deal about their lifestyle and interests. Over 2,500 people in the UK were asked to state which musical styles they liked most, and then complete a questionnaire about their living arrangements, political and moral beliefs, travel, personal finances, education, employment, health, media preferences, and leisure time interests.

When it comes to relationships, beliefs and breaking the law, fans of different musical styles gave very different responses, with fans of hip-hop and dance music standing out in particular. 37.5% of hip-hop fans and 28.7% of dance music fans had had more than one sexual partner in the past five years, (compared with, for example, 1.5% of country fans). They were also the least likely to be religious, least likely to recycle, least likely to favour the development of alternative energy sources, least likely to favour raising taxes in order to improve public services, and least likely to favour the retention of a National Health Service.

In addition, they were more likely to have broken the law. 56.9% of dance music fans and 53.1% of hip hop fans admitted to having committed a criminal act (compared, for example, to just 17.9% of fans of musicals). Hip hop and dance music fans were more likely to have tried a range of illegal drugs. However, about a quarter of the classical music and opera fans admitted to having tried cannabis, and 12.3% of opera fans had tried magic mushrooms.

On questions concerning money, education, employment and health, fans were separated along the lines of socio-economic status. Fans of classical music and opera had lifestyles indicative of the middle and upper classes. They had an average annual income of £35,000 before tax, whereas dance music fans earned only £23,311. Classical music and opera fans also paid a much higher proportion of their credit card bills each month than fans of dance music (75% and 49% respectively).

They were also more likely to have been educated to a higher level. 6.8% of opera fans had a PhD, compared to none of the chart pop fans. When it comes to eating, fans of classical music, opera and jazz tended to spend rather more money on food and preferred to drink wine to a greater extent than fans of other musical styles.

Results also showed that fans of different musical styles often had different tastes in the media. Viewers of BBC1 are more likely to be fans of rock or classical music, whereas ITV1's viewers are more likely to listen to disco and pop music. Readers of broadsheet newspapers are more likely to listen to classical and rock music, compared to readers of the tabloids, who prefer dance music, pop and music from the sixties.

Dr North added: "Surprisingly, there have been very few studies on how people's age, sex, socioeconomic status, and personality relate to the music they enjoy listening to. Moreover, this limited amount of research has focussed almost exclusively on North America. This is despite the fact that music is enjoyed by people all around the world and, in addition, there are numerous stereotypes about the types of people who listen to certain musical styles that may or may not be true (e.g. goths are depressed, classical music fans are upper-class, jazz fans are like the presenter of The Fast Show's 'Jazz Club' etc.).

"Musicaltastetest.com aims to recruit over 10,000 people to paint the first worldwide picture of who likes what."

Below are examples of the main musical preferences among people who watch different TV stations, listen to different radio stations, and read different newspapers. The numbers refer to the number of people who nominated the musical style in question. For example, of the 870 people whose favourite TV channel was BBC1, 77 liked rock music the most, making it the most popular musical style among BBC1 viewers.

BBC1 -- TOTAL 870

ROCK

77

CLASSICAL

74

ADULT POP

58

MUSICALS

57

DISCO

51

SIXTIES

47

R&B

45

CHART POP

43

INDIE

39

SOUL

35

DANCE/HOUSE

33

BLUES

31

COUNTRY&WESTERN

28

OTHER POP

27

OPERA

25

JAZZ

25

OTHER

20

DJ BASED

19

CHORAL

17

HIP HOP/RAP

17

BAROQUE

12

IRISH FOLK

12

REGGAE

11

FUNK/ACID JAZZ

10

HEAVY METAL

10

DRUM 'N' BASS

9

WORLD MUSIC

8

PUNK

8

ENGLISH FOLK

7

NEW AGE/RELAXATION

5

20TH C CLASSICAL

3

RENAISSANCE

3

AMBIENT

2

PSYCHEDELIC

2

ELECTRONIC

0

BBC2 -- TOTAL 163

ADULT POP

14

CLASSICAL

12

SIXTIES

12

INDIE

11

JAZZ

10

OPERA

9

ROCK

9

CHORAL

8

SOUL

7

DISCO

7

BLUES

7

DANCE/HOUSE

5

MUSICALS

5

OTHER

5

HIP HOP/RAP

4

BAROQUE

4

HEAVY METAL

4

COUNTRY&WESTERN

3

R&B

3

WORLD MUSIC

3

AMBIENT

3

CHART POP

2

DRUM 'N' BASS

2

PSYCHEDELIC

2

PUNK

2

DJ BASED

2

OTHER POP

2

20TH C CLASSICAL

1

ENGLISH FOLK

1

IRISH FOLK

1

ELECTRONIC

1

NEW AGE/RELAXATION

0

RENAISSANCE

0

REGGAE

0

ITV1 -- TOTAL 452

DISCO

43

ADULT POP

34

ROCK

33

CHART POP

33

SIXTIES

28

DANCE HOUSE

26

R&B

24

OTHER POP

21

SOUL

20

COUNTRY&WESTERN

17

INDIE

16

CLASSICAL

15

MUSICALS

15

HIP HOP/RAP

14

OPERA

11

DJ BASED

11

JAZZ

9

REGGAE

9

IRISH FOLK

9

OTHER

9

ELECTRONIC

8

WORLD MUSIC

7

PUNK

6

FUNK/ACID JAZZ

6

AMBIENT

5

BLUES

5

HEAVY METAL

5

ENGLISH FOLK

3

DRUM 'N' BASS

2

BAROQUE

2

NEW AGE/RELAXATION

2

PSYCHEDELIC

2

CHORAL

1

20TH C CLASSICAL

1

RENAISSANCE

0

CHANNEL 4 -- TOTAL 244

DANCE/HOUSE

24

INDIE

22

R&B

20

DRUM 'N' BASS

16

HIP HOP/RAP

15

SOUL

14

ROCK

13

DJ BASED

12

CHART POP

10

DISCO

10

MUSICALS

9

FUNK/ACID JAZZ

9

JAZZ

8

REGGAE

8

OTHER

8

CLASSICAL

6

AMBIENT

6

PUNK

5

ADULT POP

4

OTHER POP

4

OPERA

3

BAROQUE

3

BLUES

3

IRISH FOLK

3

COUNTRY&WESTERN

2

SIXTIES

2

CHORAL

1

20TH C CLASSICAL

1

ENGLISH FOLK

1

ELECTRONIC

1

HEAVY METAL

1

WORLD MUSIC

0

NEW AGE/RELAXATION

0

PSYCHEDELIC

0

RENAISSANCE

0

CHANNEL 5 -- TOTAL 61

R&B

6

DANCE/HOUSE

6

HIP HOP/RAP

5

DISCO

4

ROCK

3

SOUL

3

CLASSICAL

3

MUSICALS

3

SIXTIES

3

HEAVY METAL

3

OPERA

2

JAZZ

2

WORLD MUSIC

2

BLUES

2

PUNK

2

ADULT POP

2

FUNK/ACID JAZZ

2

COUNTRY&WESTERN

1

CHART POP

1

DRUM 'N' BASS

1

REGGAE

1

INDIE

1

IRISH FOLK

1

DJ BASED

1

OTHER POP

1

CHORAL

0

20TH C CLASSICAL

0

AMBIENT

0

BAROQUE

0

ENGLISH FOLK

0

NEW AGE/RELAXATION

0

PSYCHEDELIC

0

RENAISSANCE

0

ELECTRONIC

0

OTHER

0

BBC RADIO 1 -- TOTAL 937

DANCE/HOUSE

98

R&B

88

INDIE

77

CHART POP

68

ROCK

60

DISCO

60

DJ BASED

52

SOUL

45

HIP HOP/RAP

45

OTHER POP

31

OTHER

30

ADULT POP

28

DRUM 'N' BASS

25

FUNK/ACID JAZZ

25

MUSICALS

24

SIXTIES

21

CLASSICAL

20

JAZZ

17

HEAVY METAL

16

COUNTRY&WESTERN

15

REGGAE

15

PUNK

14

AMBIENT

13

OPERA

9

WORLD MUSIC

6

IRISH FOLK

6

ELECTRONIC

6

BAROQUE

4

ENGLISH FOLK

3

PSYCHEDELIC

3

CHORAL

2

NEW AGE/RELAXATION

1

RENAISSANCE

1

20TH C CLASSICAL

0

BBC RADIO 2 -- TOTAL 258

ADULT POP

35

SIXTIES

27

ROCK

24

MUSICALS

24

CLASSICAL

23

COUNTRY&WESTERN

17

DISCO

17

OTHER POP

13

JAZZ

11

IRISH FOLK

10

BLUES

9

SOUL

7

CHORAL

7

OPERA

6

R&B

6

CHART POP

4

BAROQUE

4

OTHER

4

WORLD MUSIC

3

DANCE/HOUSE

2

ENGLISH FOLK

2

20TH C CLASSICAL

1

REGGAE

1

DJ BASED

1

DRUM 'N' BASS

0

HIP HOP/RAP

0

AMBIENT

0

NEW AGE/RELAXATION

0

PSYCHEDELIC

0

RENAISSANCE

0

INDIE

0

PUNK

0

ELECTRONIC

0

FUNK/ACID JAZZ

0

HEAVY METAL

0

BBC RADIO 4 -- TOTAL 295

CLASSICAL

40

MUSICALS

24

SIXTIES

21

ADULT POP

20

OPERA

19

ROCK

16

SOUL

16

INDIE

16

JAZZ

14

CHORAL

13

BLUES

13

DISCO

12

COUNTRY&WESTERN

11

IRISH FOLK

8

CHART POP

6

20TH C CLASSICAL

5

BAROQUE

5

ENGLISH FOLK

5

OTHER

5

FUNK/ACID JAZZ

4

R&B

3

WORLD MUSIC

3

REGGAE

3

HEAVY METAL

3

DANCE/HOUSE

2

NEW AGE/RELAXATION

2

PUNK

2

OTHER POP

2

AMBIENT

1

PSYCHEDELIC

1

DRUM 'N' BASS

0

HIP HOP/RAP

0

RENAISSANCE

0

ELECTRONIC

0

DJ BASED

0

BBC RADIO 5 LIVE -- TOTAL 97

ROCK

7

BLUES

7

INDIE

7

ADULT POP

7

DISCO

6

SIXTIES

6

REGGAE

6

SOUL

5

MUSICALS

5

OTHER POP

5

CHART POP

4

CLASSICAL

4

OPERA

3

DANCE/HOUSE

3

FUNK/ACID JAZZ

3

DJ BASED

3

JAZZ

2

PUNK

2

HEAVY METAL

2

OTHER

2

COUNTRY&WESTERN

1

R&B

1

CHORAL

1

HIP HOP/RAP

1

WORLD MUSIC

1

AMBIENT

1

IRISH FOLK

1

ELECTRONIC

1

20TH C CLASSICAL

0

DRUM 'N' BASS

0

BAROQUE

0

ENGLISH FOLK

0

NEW AGE/RELAXATION

0

PSYCHEDELIC

0

RENAISSANCE

0

CLASSIC FM -- TOTAL 74

CLASSICAL

17

ROCK

7

BAROQUE

6

OPERA

5

MUSICALS

5

IRISH FOLK

5

CHORAL

4

ADULT POP

4

COUNTRY&WESTERN

3

CHART POP

2

R&B

2

WORLD MUSIC

2

INDIE

2

HEAVY METAL

2

OTHER

2

SOUL

1

DANCE/HOUSE

1

HIP HOP/RAP

1

BLUES

1

SIXTIES

1

PUNK

1

JAZZ

0

DISCO

0

20TH C CLASSICAL

0

DRUM 'N' BASS

0

AMBIENT

0

ENGLISH FOLK

0

NEW AGE/RELAXATION

0

PSYCHEDELIC

0

RENAISSANCE

0

REGGAE

0

ELECTRONIC

0

FUNK/ACID JAZZ

0

DJ BASED

0

OTHER POP

0

THE TIMES -- TOTAL 363

CLASSICAL

35

ROCK

25

R&B

23

SOUL

22

ADULT POP

21

MUSICALS

19

SIXTIES

19

INDIE

19

DISCO

18

OPERA

15

HIP HOP/RAP

15

OTHER POP

13

JAZZ

12

BLUES

12

DANCE/HOUSE

11

CHART POP

9

REGGAE

8

CHORAL

7

IRISH FOLK

7

OTHER

7

COUNTRY&WESTERN

6

PUNK

6

DRUM 'N' BASS

5

HEAVY METAL

5

WORLD MUSIC

4

ENGLISH FOLK

4

FUNK/ACID JAZZ

4

DJ BASED

4

BAROQUE

3

AMBIENT

2

ELECTRONIC

3

20TH C CLASSICAL

1

NEW AGE/RELAXATION

0

PSYCHEDELIC

0

RENAISSANCE

0

THE GUARDIAN -- TOTAL 209

ROCK

15

CLASSICAL

12

ADULT POP

12

R&B

11

CHART POP

10

SOUL

10

DANCE/HOUSE

10

SIXTIES

10

INDIE

10

OPERA

9

JAZZ

9

MUSICALS

9

FUNK/ACID JAZZ

9

HIP HOP/RAP

7

DISCO

6

DRUM 'N' BASS

6

IRISH FOLK

6

OTHER

6

AMBIENT

5

BLUES

5

DJ BASED

5

BAROQUE

4

REGGAE

4

OTHER POP

4

PUNK

3

COUNTRY&WESTERN

2

CHORAL

2

WORLD MUSIC

2

20TH C CLASSICAL

1

ENGLISH FOLK

1

NEW AGE/RELAXATION

1

PSYCHEDELIC

1

RENAISSANCE

1

HEAVY METAL

1

ELECTRONIC

0

INDEPENDENT -- TOTAL 85

ROCK

11

DANCE/HOUSE

7

DJ BASED

5

SOUL

4

AMBIENT

4

INDIE

4

OPERA

3

JAZZ

3

CLASSICAL

3

MUSICALS

3

BLUES

3

REGGAE

3

PUNK

3

ADULT POP

3

OTHER

3

CHART POP

2

DISCO

2

DRUM 'N' BASS

2

SIXTIES

2

FUNK/ACID JAZZ

2

HEAVY METAL

2

COUNTRY&WESTERN

1

R&B

1

CHORAL

1

20TH C CLASSICAL

1

BAROQUE

1

ENGLISH FOLK

1

NEW AGE/RELAXATION

1

RENAISSANCE

1

IRISH FOLK

1

ELECTRONIC

1

OTHER POP

1

HIP HOP/RAP

0

WORLD MUSIC

0

PSYCHEDELIC

0

TELEGRAPH -- TOTAL 143

CLASSICAL

17

ROCK

14

INDIE

10

ADULT POP

9

DISCO

8

MUSICALS

8

OPERA

6

COUNTRY&WESTERN

6

CHART POP

6

CHORAL

6

SIXTIES

6

SOUL

5

WORLD MUSIC

5

BLUES

5

OTHER POP

5

FUNK/ACID JAZZ

4

DJ BASED

4

HIP HOP/RAP

3

JAZZ

2

R&B

2

DANCE/HOUSE

2

BAROQUE

2

REGGAE

2

HEAVY METAL

2

AMBIENT

1

NEW AGE/RELAXATION

1

IRISH FOLK

1

OTHER

1

20TH C CLASSICAL

0

DRUM 'N' BASS

0

ENGLISH FOLK

0

PSYCHEDELIC

0

RENAISSANCE

0

PUNK

0

ELECTRONIC

0

THE MIRROR -- TOTAL 245

SIXTIES

21

ROCK

19

COUNTRY&WESTERN

18

R&B

17

DISCO

16

MUSICALS

16

CHART POP

13

CLASSICAL

13

HIP HOP/RAP

13

DANCE/HOUSE

10

ADULT POP

10

INDIE

9

OTHER POP

9

BLUES

8

IRISH FOLK

8

DJ BASED

8

SOUL

6

DRUM 'N' BASS

6

JAZZ

4

FUNK/ACID JAZZ

4

OTHER

4

HEAVY METAL

3

ENGLISH FOLK

2

PSYCHEDELIC

2

REGGAE

2

PUNK

2

CHORAL

1

BAROQUE

1

OPERA

0

20TH C CLASSICAL

0

WORLD MUSIC

0

AMBIENT

0

NEW AGE/RELAXATION

0

RENAISSANCE

0

ELECTRONIC

0

DAILY MAIL -- TOTAL 446

ADULT POP

37

DISCO

36

ROCK

31

MUSICALS

31

CHART POP

30

SIXTIES

27

CLASSICAL

25

R&B

24

SOUL

23

DANCE/HOUSE

23

JAZZ

22

COUNTRY&WESTERN

17

OPERA

13

INDIE

13

OTHER POP

12

BLUES

10

DJ BASED

9

HIP HOP/RAP

8

IRISH FOLK

8

FUNK/ACID JAZZ

8

OTHER

8

REGGAE

7

CHORAL

6

HEAVY METAL

5

WORLD MUSIC

3

DRUM 'N' BASS

2

AMBIENT

2

BAROQUE

2

ENGLISH FOLK

2

NEW AGE/RELAXATION

1

RENAISSANCE

1

20TH C CLASSICAL

0

PSYCHEDELIC

0

PUNK

0

ELECTRONIC

0

THE SUN -- TOTAL 287

DANCE/HOUSE

25

R&B

22

ROCK

20

DISCO

20

INDIE

20

SIXTIES

17

ADULT POP

17

CHART POP

15

OTHER

15

DJ BASED

12

OTHER POP

12

CLASSICAL

10

COUNTRY&WESTERN

9

DRUM 'N' BASS

8

MUSICALS

8

SOUL

7

HIP HOP/RAP

6

PUNK

6

REGGAE

5

FUNK/ACID JAZZ

5

Last reviewed:
By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on
21 Feb 2009
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.